


A Hopelessly Hopeful Future

by Luci_Cunt



Series: Removing Thorns [4]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: He deserved more and so this is me, I love him and this is what he deserves, Katelyn and Neil and basically everyone else are only mentioned, XDD honestly tho, asking him to be happy, but it's Aaron's turn on the healing pot, standing in front of a character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 09:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19354057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luci_Cunt/pseuds/Luci_Cunt
Summary: Shit starts clicking for Aaron





	A Hopelessly Hopeful Future

**Author's Note:**

> alkdfa;lsdfj she's back to her bullshit
> 
> listen: I love Aaron, I want him to be happy just like all the other foxes so here's this. 
> 
> (I might seriously be mad projecting on this one lmao, so sorry if it's possibly a lil ooc, but yeet)
> 
> Warnings: vague mentions of drug use/ Drake (literally just his name and Aaron's reaction to him)/ one mention of a panic attack

Aaron Minyard’s life had been drugs, forced sobriety, and moving. 

He couldn’t remember most of his childhood before the pills, or the powders, or the needles on especially dark days. Therapists told him he took them as a link to his mother, who was also an avid drug user. 

They were wrong, he used them to get away from her.

It was the only way he felt he could escape her without feeling that guilt of being an ungrateful child. 

_I’m trying my best Aaron–if you could just–_

_I’d like to see you do better in my place!_

_I never asked for you!_

_You’re lucky to have a roof over your head, act like it._

Then his mirror image came along with bruised under eyes and a tone that never changed from bored. He came with promises that Aaron assumed were flippant, just like everyone else in his life. So he agreed, bitter laughter on his tongue and forced out of his mouth thanks to the high. 

Then Andrew killed his mother. 

Then they moved in with Nicky.

Then Aaron was throwing up over a toilet, locked in the bathroom and screaming until his throat felt like it was being torn to shreds.

It had been summer, and something had snapped inside Aaron while in that bathroom. Something clicked into place so jarringly it felt like a crack. 

He needed to be able to never depend on anyone ever again. 

And so he worked, over the summers he worked to save money and during the school year he took classes and got his GPA up and made sure he’d get into a college. Everything he started doing was for that future. For that moment when he could walk away from everyone around him and stop depending on anyone besides himself. 

And then, before he could try to apply to colleges, Andrew threw a box at him and told him to pack for Palmetto. For a sports scholarship and it tasted like lemons and vinegar.

Aaron still didn’t believe his brother when he promised things. He hadn’t trusted anyone to be honest so far, and he wasn’t going to quit now. It would only make leaving harder. 

So he pushed, and he pushed and he pushed, trying to get Andrew to snap and break his promise just like everyone else had. 

Katelyn was what he thought would be the last straw. She had the face of an angel and a tongue like sin and there was no way his brother would allow it. 

But she also had a laugh like sunshine and a smile that sent every part of Aaron reeling. 

Aaron had a panic attack outside the chemistry lab one day when all she did was look up and smile at him. He panicked because that look made his entire world flip upside down and sucked the air out of his lungs. 

Aaron tried, he tried so hard to leave her. 

They broke up three times. 

Every time he couldn’t keep himself from coming back because as much as it ached to know this couldn’t end well, actually ending it hurt more.

She was the first he tried to keep a secret. 

Then trouble showed up in the form of a brown-haired dumbass wearing clothes that looked pulled from a copse. He was clutching a bag and his eyes darted around enough to make Aaron exhausted just looking at him.

_Nobody, from Millport, Arizona._

At first all Aaron saw was a new punching bag for his brother, Columbia proved that, but then Neil stayed. He stuck around and melted into the cracks of the Foxes.

Aaron wasn’t stupid, he knew what that look in his twin’s eye meant even if Neil didn’t. 

But then it changed into something he couldn’t recognize–couldn’t let himself recognize. Something deeper and less superficial. Something real. 

Thanksgiving came, it slammed into him with blood and fear sweat and Aaron spent December sleepless and sick. 

He didn’t regret that Drake was dead now. The thought of him alive made Aaron more sick. 

He couldn’t even remember doing it, just the door opening and then suddenly Aarons hands were buzzing like when Kevin slammed his racquet against Aaron’s when he did something stupid on court. And blood. There had been blood, and then laughter. 

It took Aaron weeks to remember what was sandwiched between the blood and the laughing.

_Did he touch you?_

He convinced himself he imagined it, and then moved on. 

Then Neil started causing shit, made Katelyn turn against him, and the bitterest part was that Aaron knew he deserved it. He still threw all his anger at Neil. 

Then Neil was gone and Aaron watched his brother unravel at the seams for the first time in his life. He recognized the feeling, and it hit him like a bullet to the throat. 

He’d have done the same if Neil had been Katelyn.

His realization was only confirmed in the hotel. He was sure he was the only one aside from maybe Nicky and Wymack and Neil himself who could see how Andrew was barely holding it together as he peeled away the bandages on Neil’s face. Abby tried to help and Aaron watched his brothers control snap for a moment. 

They went to the cabin and Aaron let himself snap, he lashed out worse than he should have but Neil responded just as harshly. And it proved that everything that was falling into place around Aaron was really real.

So Aaron found Andrew, and he spit everything into his face, every molten word he’d been holding in his chest since they’d met and every grudge. It will never be a moment he was proud of, and at the time letting all of it out make him shake and his mouth tasted like acid. But it got a reaction out of his emotionless brother. 

_No one keeps their promises Andrew, no one._

_I do, it’s not my fault you’re too stupid to see that._

_How do you know I want you too?_

_Because you haven’t corrected me, not once. You are the one who chose to renew the deal, that’s not my fault._

_I was a dumb teenager with no concept of the future Andrew you can’t fault me._

_So was I._

_So, what? How do I stop this, I don’t want this deal anymore._

_Then there’s no deal._

_It was that easy?_

_It’s not my fault you don’t understand communication._

_But it’s you. You weren’t going to let me, you’re just doing it now to prove a point._

_Don’t presume to know me. We’re done, our deal is over and you got what you wanted, now leave._

Somehow that left Aaron feeling more empty than anything. He’d expected exhilaration, relief, something other than this hollow feeling he’d earned. 

And suddenly there was another click–again too violent to be satisfying, but it clicked into place one day for him as he watched Andrew get into the car to go visit the therapist that Aaron hadn’t said a word too in years. Without really thinking he followed his brother, and reacted expressionlessly to Andrew’s raised brow. 

_Mind if I sit in?_

He wasn’t surprised when Andrew didn’t say anything, just unlocked the passenger's seat and turned up the radio.

Life for Aaron had been drugs, forced sobriety, and moving. But for once it was moving forward, towards something that was getting closer. 

It was moving towards a house with Katelyn, and twins, and a green grassy backyard where he could laugh at the sappy look in his brother’s eyes as they watched Neil try to teach the twins exy. For once he was actually moving, and not running in place for a useless idea. 

Life for Aaron had been drugs, forced sobriety, and moving. But now it was the closest to peace any Fox could hope for.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudo's and comments are ~greatly~ appreciated <333
> 
> Also if you're feeling particularly gushy today and want more of these Fox bitches healing like they deserve to–hey this is part of a series! Feel free to click through! <333


End file.
